Winter Internship At Tihar Jail

By: Jayant Mudgal BA L.L.B Amity Law School, Noida A3211112105

I did my internship for a week at Tihar Jail, New Delhi under law officer Mr. Sunil Gupta for a week. With every passing semester and every internship it helps me upto great extent to increase my knowledge and experience. At the beginning of the internship we were given a great description about tihar jail and it daily activities by the law officer which helped us to increase our knowledge about prison activities and schemes for prisoners inside tihar jail. This internship has introduced me to a whole new experience and has cleared out all the illusions of how a jail is. We were informed that tihar jail had 9 prisons and one prision was in rohini jail known as district jail so delhi has total 10 jail where all prisoners are kept we were asked to visited jails day wise with a specific topic on which we had to research on while was found very interesting and was related to the life of prisoners.

DAY1: As I mentioned above that on my first day i registered as an intern and then all the interns present there were taken for lecture by the Law Officer i.e. Mr. Sunil Kumar who gave us an outline of what we will be learning during the internship. The first and basic lesson of our internship was the different types of prisoners. There are three types of prisoners: Under Trial:

Prisoners who are in the jail while their cases are still pending in the courts i.e. their cases have not been decided. An under trial prisoner is not required to work in the prison. Convicts:

Convicts are those prisoners whose trial is over and have been convicted for an offence and awarded rigorous imprisonment. They are required to work while their stay in prison and are given wages for their work per day which are Rs. 99 for skilled, Rs. 74 for semi skilled and Rs. 62 for unskilled out of which 25% is deducted and sent to any of the victims families to support them. Detenu:

Those who are under detention by the orders of the specified authorities. The Tihar jail has a very tight security with a three layered security system i.e Peripheral, Tower and Jail securities. The topic for my first day was Sparsh scheme. Keeping in mind the welfare of its inmates, Tihar Prisons authorities have launched a new scheme to provide Rs.500 per month as financial help to poor and needy prisoners lodged there. This amount was given to the under trial prisoners whose families could not afford to send them money. Under this scheme, 2,200 inmates get the specified amount with which they can make purchases from the jail canteen for day-to-day requirements or use it when out on parole or furlough. Also various NGOs visit the Tihar Jail in order to provide various basic facilities to the inmates, on of them being Radhe Radhe that comes every month to provide with facilities, like toiletries, oil etc. We went into Jail No. 8 and 9 to meet the prisoners there. I and my partner interviewed 8 prisoners. One of them being Wasim Haider who was there since the past 8 months and has 2 children namely sameer (14yrs) and saja ( 12yrs). He was under trial for sections 376 read with 506 of Indian Penal Code. He being not that well being took the Rs. 500 under the Sparsh scheme and the Toiletries from the Radhe Radhe NGO. As well there were many other prisoners who took them and were well aware of Day 2 On the second day in tihar jail I was made to visit the semi open jail in tihar jail. "The aim and objective behind starting Semi-Open Jail is to mould the thinking of a prisoner towards positive activity by reposing trust in him so that he may easily mingle with society after release from the prison," Under the concept of semi-open jail, select convicts will be allowed to move out of their jails and work in Tihar premises. They will be employed on various projects based on horticulture, PWD, Tihar Haat and TJs outlets inside the Tihar premises. The convicts will be paid maximum possible wages in accordance with Government rules. Out of the wages earned by the inmates, 75 per cent would be given to the inmates and 25 per cent deducted for the welfare of the victims. It is notable that

there are around seven factory units already being run inside the Tihar premises under which inmates are being trained for better future prospect. The inmates will leave the jail premises to work for a stipulated time period (from 8am to 6pm) and come back to their cell before night. They will be allowed to work within a certain radius of the prison complex and there will be no one overseeing their work. This is in furtherance of our furlough facility, where to date 260 prisoners have availed it for seven the scheme.

DAY 3: My topic for the third day was Vocational Activities for the prisioners of tihar jail. It was mentioned that Tihar Jail has identified 80 modular employable skills courses in 14 sectors -- including automotive repair, beauty culture and hair dressing, carpet, electrical, fabrication, garment making, hospitality, khadi, printing, refrigeration and air-conditioning, sweets, snacks and food, construction, wood work and food processing and preservation for training the inmates so that they can lead a normal life after release. The prisoners registered under various courses would be imparted theoretical knowledge as well as practical training by expert technical instructors. Active participation of the private sector and industry was also being ensured. The minimum qualification for most of the courses is Class V and minimum age 14. The Institute will provide short-term training courses varying from 60 hours to 480 hours. The inmates are given the opportunity to learn many skills that prepare them for the outer world when they are realised. It is also done to keep them busy and give them some extra knowledge that they can use as a means of income when they are realised from the jail and go to the outer world again. The certificates for the courses will be awarded to the trainees by the National Council for Vocational Training and they will not bear the name of Tihar Jail. About 400 inmates have been selected in Central Jail No.2 for various courses started from October 10 and the scheme will soon be extended to other jails at Tihar. During the Chief Ministers visit, it was

also announced that there is a proposal to construct new jails at Narela, Ghitorni and Baprola to de-congest the existing prisons. A new jail complex consisting of six jails is coming up at Mandoli by 2010 for lodging about 3,500 prisoners. The trainee inmates will be tested by an independent assessing body appointed by the Labour Ministry every three months. The training fee would be between Rs.500 and 2,000 depending on the course. Candidates belonging to SC/ST category and women will get a relaxation of 25 per cent in the fee. I interviewed many inmates including one ankit verma, 27years of age who has been there since the past 3years for robbery of Rs 9crores. He was completing his graduation degree there. He looks into the matters of vocational and educational activities of the inmates. We also met Obi, a foreign inmate who was convicted under the NDPS Act, and was there since the past 8years. He is working in the shoe factory and was happy that he got to learn something while staying in the prison. We visited the production units of biscuits, spices, namkeens and papers run by the inmates which are better known as TJ Products in the outer world. Day 4 The task for the third day was to visit Jail No. 5 and research on the Furlough Facility provided to the convicts. Furlough Facility is a right of the inmates which can be availed by them 3 times in a year. According to the Furlough facility the inmates can go to their homes for 7 weeks in a year but in three spells of 3 weeks, 2weeks and 2 weeks respectively. The minimum requirement for furlough is 3 AGCR ( Annual Good Conduct Remission) i.e. three years where the inmate has not been punished or has not broken any rule of the prison. These 3 years need not be consecutive. According to the guidelines of Furlough Facility the following are the essentials for availing furlough: Good conduct and 3 AGCR Inmate should not be a habitual offender Should be a citizen of India

 Should not be involved in Robbery, Dacoity, Arson, Kidnapping, abduction, rape and Extortion. . Should not be involved in any crime against the state. Security. Should not be considered dangerous to National

His presence should not be considered dangerous by the Magistrate of his home district. For the inmate to avail the Furlough Facility he has to provide a surety amount and has to visit the nearest police station once a week for attendance during his stay. Also the person should be sentenced for atleast 5 years of imprisonment but should have undergone 3 years of remission excluding Furlough. The basic difference between Parole and Furlough is that some grounds of excuse like sickness or death are needed to avail Parole but the same are not needed for Furlough. Also Parole can be granted for 1month within 6months gap i.e. twice a year, while Furlough can be granted thrice a year for 3weeks, 2weeks and 2weeks respectively. During our investigation we found Mr. Prem Raj, 54years of age, who was convicted under 302 of IPC. He stayed as an under trial prisoner from 1991 to 1996, he was convicted in 1996 and stayed in jail till 1999. In 1999 he was granted bail by the High Court but was again sent to jail in 2009 by the high court. Since then he has been in jail but has gone and stayed with his family many times on Parole and Furlough. He is now applying to go again, to fix his daughters wedding. Thus this facility has given the convicts a chance to stay in contact with the outer world and their families and not get lost in the darkness of the jail. Day 5: A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form i.e. they are in the adolescent stage, aging between 18 to 21 years of age which is first verified by the Bone test. The task of day4 was to visit CJ.07 which is known to house the juveniles. There are around 800 juveniles locked behind the bars in the in respective jail

where these juveniles are working in the production units to earn and to learn something. During are interview we came across one Naresh, 17years of age, who is under trial for section 376, 307 and 511 of IPC. He told us that he had been in this jail since the past 4 months but has not been granted any legal aid by the prison authorities even after asking twice and lodging a complaint. We also met one Vikram Bahadur, 19years of age, who has been staying in jail for the past 4 months. He is under trial for section 380 of IPC. He is mentally disturbed and has seizures and is taking medicines regarding the same and still has not been granted bail.

In the end this internship has helped me realise the reality of jails. On one hand where the prisoners who have committed serious crimes are given immense opportunities to learn and avail facilities provided by the government and to become a better person. On the other hand the officials who are well known for the beatingsin the police stations were also known to take care of the inmates like guardians. Tihar jail has emerged an inspiration to the other jails of the country, but a major problem that goes without notice is the overcrowding of the under trial prisoners. As per the Survey conducted by the government officials, about 75% of the prisoners in jail are under trial waiting for their acquittal or conviction, while only 25% of the prisoners are spending their lives as a convict. Thus the immediate need is speedy trials so as to decrease the number of the under trials in the jails which will not only be beneficial for the inmates but will also reduce the burdens from the government and the prison authorities.